The Meaning of Life for University Students

Abstract

This research helps to identify the factors that motivate the dynamics involved in how meaning of life is acquired and proposes a methodological approach to improve understanding and education on the personal meaning of life for university students. The study lays out two categories: the anthropological radicals of that meaning, which come from within or personal intimacies, and the lines of orientation towards the meaning of life, which are existential and realized as different spheres in one's experience. Nine types of meaning in life emerge from the intersection of these two dimensions, depending on the greater or lesser degree of openness in personal radicals and how life plays out in its existential fields. Two tools were used with this conceptual model: a questionnaire and a focused interview. They were applied to a sample of 720 university students from eight universities in the city of Bogotá (Colombia). Essentially, this study shows the meaning of life for university students is subjective and constructed more with an eye towards the future than based on or extracted from their experiences in life, but is laden invariably with the values assumed in a generational shift.